CPA Blog

Stretch your marketing dollars further with smart strategies

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Published: Monday, 20 January 2020 07:40

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

If your marketing budget is limited, there may be ways to make that money go further. Smart strategies abound for small to midsize businesses. Let’s look at a few ideas for stretching your marketing dollars a bit further.

Check out the big guys

Look to larger companies for ideas on how to improve and amp up your marketing tactics. Big businesses use many different types of campaigns and sometimes their big-budget approaches can be distilled down to lower-cost alternatives. Think of it as a “competitive intelligence” effort with the emphasis more on “intelligence” than “competitive.”

Maybe you can’t develop an app with a robust rewards system like coffee giant Starbucks. But you could still come up with a loyalty reward campaign using punch cards or some other mechanism.

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The tax implications of being a winner

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Published: Monday, 13 January 2020 08:57

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

f you’re lucky enough to be a winner at gambling or the lottery, congratulations! After you celebrate, be ready to deal with the tax consequences of your good fortune.

Winning at gambling

Whether you win at the casino, a bingo hall, or elsewhere, you must report 100% of your winnings as taxable income. They’re reported on the “Other income” line on Schedule 1 of your 1040 tax return. To measure your winnings on a particular wager, use the net gain. For example, if a $30 bet at the race track turns into a $110 win, you’ve won $80, not $110.

You must separately keep track of losses. They’re deductible, but only as itemized deductions. Therefore, if you don’t itemize and take the standard deduction, you can’t deduct gambling losses. In addition, gambling losses are only deductible up to the amount of gambling winnings. So you can use losses to “wipe out” gambling income but you can’t show a gambling tax loss.

Maintain good records of your losses during the year. Keep a diary in which you indicate the date, place, amount and type of loss, as well as the names of anyone who was with you. Save all documentation, such as checks or credit slips.

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Taking a long-term approach to certain insurance documentation

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Published: Monday, 13 January 2020 08:47

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

After insurance policies expire, many businesses just throw away the paper copies and delete the digital files. But you may need to produce evidence of certain kinds of insurance even after the coverage period has expired. For this reason, it’s best to take a long-term approach to certain types of policies.

Occurrence-based insurance

Generally, the policy types in question are called “occurrence-based.” They include:

• General liability,
• Umbrella liability,
• Commercial auto, and
• Commercial crime and theft.

You should retain documentation of occurrence-based policies permanently (or as long as your business is operating). A good example of why is in cases of embezzlement. Employee fraud of this kind may be covered under a commercial crime and theft policy. However, embezzlement sometimes isn’t uncovered until years after the crime has taken place.

For instance, suppose that, during an audit, you learn an employee was embezzling funds three years ago. But the policy that covered this type of theft has since expired. To receive an insurance payout, you’d need to produce the policy documents to prove that coverage was in effect when the crime occurred.

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Run your strategic-planning meetings like they really matter

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Published: Monday, 13 January 2020 08:40

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

Many businesses struggle to turn abstract strategic-planning ideas into concrete, actionable plans. One reason why is simple: ineffective meetings. The ideas are there, lurking in the minds of management and key employees, but the process for hashing them out just doesn’t work. Here are a few ways to run your strategic-planning meetings like they really matter — which, of course, they do.

Build buy-in

Meetings often fail because attendees feel more like spectators than participants. They are less likely to zone out if they have some say in the direction and content of the gathering. So, before the session, touch base with those involved and establish a clear agenda of the strategic-planning initiatives you’ll be discussing.

Another common problem with meetings occurs when someone leads the meeting, but no one owns it. As the meeting leader, be sure to speak with conviction and express positivity (if not passion) for the subject matter. (If others are delivering presentations during the proceedings, encourage them to do the same.)

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